Force sensing Vibrating beam resonators are used in a number of applications for the precise measurement of force. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,445,065 for "Non-Prismal Beam Resonator," invented by the present inventor, describes and illustrates a single vibrating beam resonator used in an accelerometer application for measuring the forces of acceleration or deceleration, such forces being applied to change the frequency of the vibrating beam.
A difficulty encountered with vibrating beam resonators involves the substantial number of cuts that must be made in the material used for the resonator, preferably quartz or some other piezoelectric material. The extensive cutting operations are the result of the prior art configurations of the resonators, which ordinarily include two isolator masses at the ends of and on each side of the vibrating beam. The precision cuts required for such configurations are time-consuming and costly to make. For example, to provide the vibrating beam, isolator masses, isolator springs and mounts used in the resonators shown in the Weisboard U.S. Pat. No. 3,470,400, and Albert U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,445,065 and 4,446,394, numerous precision cuts are needed to form the slots that define the components of the resonator structures. It would be advantageous to decrease the number of required cuts to reduce the time needed to fabricate the resonator structures from quartz or other piezoelectric blanks, hence affording significant cost savings.